Renzo + Lucia: The Complete Trilogy - Bethany-Kris Page 0,25

in a mirror as he regarded this man. Well, an older and shittier mirror, maybe. A disappointing, useless, cocksucker of a mirror.

Dark hair that hadn’t been washed in a few days.

Russet, bloodshot eyes.

Defensive posture.

Toothpick hanging out of the side of his mouth.

“Son,” Charlie muttered around his toothpick. “Heard you’d be walkin’ past this way around this time. Thought we should chat.”

Renzo’s jaw clenched, and ached from the force. “We don’t have anything to talk about. Pretty sure the last time we talked, you told me to fuck off, and stay there.”

And all he asked for was a place for Rose to stay after she had a blowout fight with their mother. Charlie had laughed, told his son to fuck off, and then slammed the apartment door in Renzo’s face. That was after it took Ren a few days to track this asshole down because God knew where he was on a regular basis.

Charlie shrugged, and tipped his head to the side to peer at the waiting guys. “That your crew, or …?”

“That’s none of your business. What do you want?”

Better to get his father on track, figure out what he could do to make the man go away, and be done with it. Renzo didn’t need Charlie’s brand of trouble, but especially not out on these streets where he worked.

“Want to know what you’re up to,” Charlie returned, those dark, bloodshot eyes darting back to Renzo’s. “I can’t come around to check up on my son? Maybe I was thinkin’ about you, and wanted to see you.”

That toothpick in his father’s mouth bounced with every word, and for some reason, the sight of it made Renzo’s blood boil. The man was so cool, calm and unbothered. Like he wasn’t standing there talking to one of the two kids he just fucking abandoned. Renzo had the strangest urge to take that toothpick, and stab it through his father’s eye just because he could and he bet it would feel damn good to do it, too.

He wasn’t the kind for violence. He could be violent, when the time called for it. A lot of his business on the streets was violent, in some ways. That was how he stayed on top, but it was also how he made sure no one else fucked around with him.

But he didn’t want to have to do any of that. He didn’t want to resort to breaking someone’s face just because he needed to survive. That was the thing, though—this was life for him. And yet, he found it was extremely easy for him to want to absolutely slaughter this man in front of him. Consequences be damned, they would be worth it.

The only thing that held Renzo back was thoughts of his siblings. Rose would be screwed out of her private schooling, and Diego would likely go into the system the first time someone found him alone without their mother because she fucked off to get high again.

“Listen, if you want to meet up or something,” Renzo started to say, “then let’s figure out a way to do that, but I am busy today. I have to go pick up Diego, and—”

“How’s the little bastard, anyway?” his father asked.

Renzo felt the pain in his chest at that question. It bloomed fast, and harsh. Entirely unforgiving as it wrapped around his heart to crush it like a dead weight that meant absolutely nothing.

How flippant and cold Charlie could be whenever he decided to ask after little Diego. The only one of the three Zulla kids that didn’t belong to him, Charlie liked to make sure none of them forgot it whenever he did come around to show his unwanted face. Usually, he just outright ignored Diego, which made the boy confused because even though Charlie wasn’t his dad, Carmen tried to say he was.

They didn’t know who Diego’s father was.

“Diego,” Renzo said lowly, “his name is Diego.”

“Yeah, that one.”

Renzo clenched his fists so tightly at his sides, that his fingernails cut into his palms. It was only that little shock of pain that kept him from flying across the sidewalk to break his knuckles on his father’s face.

“Hey, Ren?”

The call of his name drew his attention to the payphone again, and his guys loitering there. He tipped his chin as a silent greeting and acknowledgment which Perry returned.

“Head out, yeah?” Ren called back. “We’ll meet up tomorrow instead. Shit came up.”

Clearly.

The guys nodded, grabbed their backpacks from the ground, and headed down the street. Although, not